Saunders University High School
Saunders University High School (サンダース大学付属高校) is one of the schools in Girls und Panzer. The schools operate U.S. World War II tanks, primarily variants of the M4 Sherman medium tank, including an M4A6 and a British variant known as the Sherman Firefly. Background Saunders is a school located in Nagasaki, Japan and is originaly part of a large group of private schools from kindergarten to university. The school was originally a land school ran by Americans, for Americans, back in the old days and had a long history. The American population was later moved elsewhere and the school became fully Japanese once they built their first schoolship. Saunders still does exchange programs every year with actual American schools. Out of all the Sensha-dō schools, Saunders has the most resources and a huge supply of tanks. During Yukari Akiyama's infiltration of the school they are revealed to have a rather laid back attitude and a lenient curriculum. Against Ooarai Saunders Girls High School is the first opponent of Ooarai Girls High School during the national Sensha-dou tournament. With unimpressive tanking skills, they are said to rely on the use of overwhelming numbers to defeat their enemies. For the match, as discovered by Yukari, they decided to field eight 75 mm M4s, one 76 mm M4A1 (serving as the flag tank) and one Sherman Firefly. Notwithstanding their advantage in numbers and material, Alisa, the co-commander of Saunders, uses a radio intercepting balloon to tap into Ooarai's communications sitting in the forest, but Miho Nishizumi notices this and instructs her radio operator, Saori Takebe, to use text messaging instead of their radio as a countermeasure. Ooarai managed to lure two of Saunders' tank to an ambush and disable one of them, while also finding the location of the flag tank. As Alisa informs Kay of her situation (and her trick), Kay decided, to made up for the trickery, to pursue the opponent with just as many tanks as they have, instead of bringing her full force to bear. Ooarai won the match by disabling Saunders' flag tank after a heated chase. After the match, Miho asks Kay why she deviated from her usual strategy. Kay responds that she wanted to make the match more fair since Ooarai was outnumbered. Members Saunders University High School has three characters of note. Kay The overall commander of Saunders University High School Sensha-dou team. She is an energetic and charismatic leader. Her hometown is Sasebo, Nagasaki. Alisa The co-commander of Saunders University High School Sensha-dou team. She is a skilled a radio operator who can get worked up so much during battle she ignores orders. Her hometown is Sasebo, Nagasaki. Naomi The gunner of the team's Sherman Firefly tank, often seen chewing gum. Her hometown is Sasebo, Nagasaki. Megumi She was a member of the school before integrates University. Vehicles operated Aircraft *B-29 Superfortress *GAL.49 Hamilcar glider *C-5M Super Galaxy Tanks *M4 Sherman *M4A1(76) Sherman *Sherman VC Firefly *M4A6 Sherman (mentioned, not employed on-screen) Non-fighting vehicles * Jeep Willys MB * Studebaker US6 * Ford M151 MUTT * DUKW Amphibious car Trivia *The school's songs are the US "Battle Hymn of The Republic" and the "U.S. Field Artillery March". *The school ship is based on and named after the USS George Washington, an American aircraft carrier currently in service. *The Squad Sgt. and Protagonist for the 60's T.V. Program "Combat!" (!=bayonet) was named "Chip" Saunders. He moved when on Patrol like a "laid back" James Dean. *When caught by Saunders and questioned, Yukari claims to be "Sgt. Oddball" from the "6th Armored Division." That was the Character played by Donald Sutherland in "Kelly's Heroes", the movie Rabbit Team watches the night before the finals. "Kelly's Heroes was shot on location in Yugoslavia using Yugoslav Army M4A3E4 Shermans. According to the Wikipedia on "Kelly's Heroes," "the three Tiger I tanks used in the film were actually ex-Soviet Army T-34 tanks, converted in great detail by specialists of the Yugoslav army for the 1969 movie Battle on the Neretva." *The Sherman VC Firefly was a British conversion ot the Sherman V (M4A4) and was never used by the US-Army. Gallery SaundersFirefly01.jpg|Sherman VC Firefly SaundersM4A17601.jpg|M4A1(76) Sherman SaundersM401.jpg|M4 Sherman Sherman M4A6.png|M4A6 Sherman B29 Superfortress.png|B29 Superfortress Hamilcar.png|Hamilcar glider Dukw.png|DUKW amphibious car Jeep Willys.png|Jeep Willys MB Studebaker US6.jpg|Studebaker US6 Ford M151.jpg|Ford M151 MUTT imagesCA0QKEIK.jpg|M4A1 flag tank imagesCA6T0GRP.jpg|Kay riding in her M4 Sherman Screen Shot 05-30-16 at 09.12 PM.PNG|Saunders' C-5M Super Galaxy taking off Category:Schools Category:Saunders Girls High School Category:Sensha-dou Teams